Warmest greetings to friends who have read and encouraged this work along the way, and a warm welcome to those who have just “tuned in.” We are about to embark on a happy, holy season, a privileged time together. Once, sixty years ago, a well-known and well-loved public figure – Majesty, in fact – took the same journey.
In the spring of 1953, Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, composed for Elizabeth II a devotional for her private use during the final thirty days leading up to her crowning. She had been Queen for fifteen months when the book was completed and presented to her, but now the ceremony of Coronation was at hand. It was a church service, really, with eye-popping and soul stirring royal magnificence.
It was also, as we will see, an earthly template, rich in symbolic truth, for the majesty that belongs to those who “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33) It may be that our perspectives of royalty, of reigning, and of the realm in which we live will undergo a consecration long overdue. Sixty years ago, on June 2 of that mid-century year, Elizabeth’s life was consecrated to her vocation, and she has lived up to her vows. Because we don’t make any promises when we come to Jesus Christ by faith … does not mean that there are not obligations of majesty upon us.
The country had suffered through two devastating World Wars. Inflation and unemployment were still cutting deep into the national psyche, and the worst of the rationing and privations were nowhere near forgotten. Elizabeth had, only four years before, purchased the fabric for her wedding gown with ration cards and a small behest from the government.
Now the realm was eager to take part in all the color and pageantry of Her Majesty’s Coronation. Preparations were underway throughout the Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Innumerable councils and committees had formed immediately following the funeral for Elizabeth’s father, King George VI; now all their combined logistics and efforts would be proven. London was adorning itself with bunting and banners and images of the Queen on everything from post cards to postage stamps, and from biscuit tins to button badges. A Gallup poll taken at the time estimated that 17 million people would take active part in the celebration, with 7 million hosting Coronation parties and 2 million lining the Coronation route.*
The Archbishop was delighted with the national enthusiasm, and he wanted to do his best to make sure that Her Majesty’s subjects knew what was about to take place in the heavenlies as well as in London … and what that could mean to them. The book he wrote for Her Majesty has recently been put on display in London, with a collection of treasured religious writings and artifacts, but it is not available to us. In searching for a copy of it, I came upon an obscure little volume of the Archbishop’s, “addresses interpreting the Coronation.” It is titled, “I Here Present Unto You …,” which were the opening words of the manuscript he had given to the Queen.
While Elizabeth was reading and praying through her devotional, he was taking every opportunity to bring the glories, and particularly the religious significance, of the ceremony home to every Briton. In sermons and speeches he talked about the divine responsibilities and spiritual benefits that belonged to them all as she was crowned the fortieth monarch of the realm since William the Conqueror. Six of these essays are compiled in the book. Here are a few representative words from it:
“She (Elizabeth II) accepts the responsibility God lays upon her. She seeks and receives from God, as his anointed servant, strength for her task.
“Her responsibility is ours too. God has throughout history called nations, even nations that knew him not, to do a special work for him. God has not a few times spoken to this nation, laid a mission upon it, and given it the will to obey and the power to perform his call. …
“Events have indeed taken from us much of our power, economic, political, military. But to this nation, as to its Queen, is left the harder, the humbler, more splendid source of power: to be . . . what God calls us to be in the world . . .”.
That is why we are here and what we will see during the next month. There are divine responsibilities and spiritual benefits that are ours, too, for the sake of our souls and for the good of lives all around us. The unctions of worship and prayer, for example, and the grace of forgiveness and mercy are royal privileges to us, and even a casual reading of Scripture lets us know that they are commanded of us as well. We neglect them only foolishly … and sometimes selfishly. Like children hiding in plain sight, if we say we do not have a noble calling, then we don’t have to live up to it!
There is great help for us in the majesty of our calling; Queen Elizabeth, as we will see, was bound by oath and by law to her throne and its tremendous liabilities, but by love she has kept her vows. So may we keep ourselves in the love of God. (Jude 20, 21) Our royal vocation does not require pedigree, except in Jesus Christ. It does not dismiss any believer because of either poverty or privilege. Without thinking, we sometimes disavow any royal obligation with humble-speak, when instead, by the true humility of obedience to God, we could step up to the glory and the effort of life in Christ Jesus, our KING.
We have sometimes cast off His majesty and held our inheritance far too lightly. What we do not have in our mortal flesh, we do have in Him. To live humbly in His majesty will require all the Regalia of heaven that is given to us, and if it seems good to you and the Holy Spirit, you may attend the commemoration of Elizabeth’s Coronation, not in the spectator seats, but with her and the righteous kings and queens that have gone before her, from the moment she steps into the aisle.
“I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.” Job 29:14, (21st Century King James Version)
Cor Unum Abbey 